The present invention relates to a method and a device for controlling an automatic transmission which can be switched between two speed change patterns according to the desire of the vehicle operator according to demands for vehicle power or smoothness or economy or the like, and more particularly relates to such a method and such a device for transmission control, in which the transitions between speed stages of said automatic transmission are appropriately adjusted in the two speed change patterns so as to provide most suitable transmission operation.
The present invention has been described in Japanese Patent Application Serial No. 60-218310 (1985), filed by an applicant the same as the entity assigned or owed duty of assignment of the present patent application; and the present patent application hereby incorporates into itself by reference to text of said Japanese Patent Application and the claim and the drawings thereof; a copy is appended to the present application.
Further, the present inventors wish hereby to attract the attention of the examining authorities to copending U.S. patent application No. 764,175 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,580, which may be considered to be material to the examination of the present patent application.
In Japanese Patent Applications Serial Nos. 59-176229 (1984) published under Japanese Publication Nos. 61-55451 (1986), and 60-7066 (1985) published under Japanese Publication No. 61-167758 (1986), which were made by an applicant the same as the entity assigned or owed duty of assignment of the present patent application, and which it is not intended hereby to admit as prior art to the present patent application except to the extent in any case required by applicable law, there is disclosed a novel type of automatic transmission, which can be operated according to two different patterns of shifting between its speed stages (hereinafter such patterns of speed stage shifting will be called shift patterns). A first one of such shift patterns allows the transmission to be shifted between a certain number, say N, of speed stages, while a second one of such shift patterns allows the transmission to be shifted among a lower number, say N-X, where perhaps X may equal to 1, of speed stages of a gear transmission mechanism incorporated in the transmission. The selection between the shift patterns is made according to the decision of the vehicle operator, via a manually controlled pattern selection switch. Typically, one such pattern may emphasize high engine output power operational characteristics, while the other such pattern may emphasize fuel economy. In any case, it should be understood that this concept is quite distinct from, and can in fact coexist alongside and independently of, the per se conventional concept of providing various shift ranges for the transmission such as "D" range, "S" range, "L" range, and so on; typically the speed stages (in number X) which are omitted from the above identified second one of such shift patterns by comparison with the first one are intermediate speed stages. For example, the first one of such shift patterns may have the vehicle transmission shifting between first, second, third, fourth, and fifth speed stages of its gear transmission mechanism, whereas the second one of such shift patterns may have the vehicle transmission shifting only between said first, third, fourth, and fifth speed stages of its said gear transmission mechanism, thus skipping over the second speed stage of said gear transmission mechanism.